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Tuesday
For a while I’ve thought that King Lear was the Shakespeare tragedy that best captures the Trump presidency. After all, it involves a demented leader whose narcissism plunges his country into civil war and destroys everyone around him. Now, however, I’m wondering if the escalating violence of Macbeth is a better fit.
In the Scottish tragedy, as we all know, Macbeth and his wife keep adding to the body count in their efforts to seize and hold on to power: first Duncan and his guards, then Macbeth’s best friend Banquo, then Macduff’s family. In our own case, we first witnessed the kidnappings of law-abiding immigrants and the deployment of national guard units to cities and states that don’t want them. Then, just as Americans were figuring out how to push back against these actions, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (or, as he sees himself, War Secretary) began ordering the armed forces to blow up boats at sea and kill everyone on board. The only debate is whether “war crime” or “murder” is the better descriptor. At the same time, Trump is threatening to go to war with Venezuela.
Appalled at what they have been witnessing, six Democratic lawmakers, all former members of the military, made a video reminding officers that they took an oath to follow only legal orders. Indeed, they are required to disobey unlawful orders. In response to the video, Trump called the six lawmakers “traitors” and accused them of sedition, which he said is “punishable by death.” Other Trumpists followed suit.
In Macbeth one also finds law-abiding characters who are accused of treason. After Macbeth kills Duncan and pins the blame on the two guards, Duncan’s two sons flee the court. Unlike Banquo and Macduff, they can see what is really going on and know that they will be targeted next. Here’s their conversation:
Malcolm: What will you do? Let’s not consort with them:
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.Donalbain: To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,
There’s daggers in men’s smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.Malcolm: This murderous shaft that’s shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
But shift away: there’s warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.
I’m not seeing many smiles in Trump, Miller or Hegseth. But daggers, yes.
At first, Malcolm and Donalbain’s flight is seen as proof of guilt. Even Macduff, who will later become their ally, is fooled:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king’s two sons,
Are stol’n away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
Macduff and Banquo bring to mind those former supporters of Trump that fell out with him. The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson coined the phrase that “everything Trump touches dies” (ETTD), and that’s true of what Macbeth touches as well. Banquo is killed, as are Macduff’s wife and children.
Given that we require our officers to swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to Trump, it’s interesting to see how Malcolm tests Macduff to determine his allegiance. Macduff pretends to believe that Macbeth is a better king than he could be, prompting Macduff to cry out in despair, “O Scotland, Scotland!” and
O nation miserable,
With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter’d,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?
Convinced that Macduff puts Scotland first, Malcolm then reveals that he is fully prepared to overthrow Macbeth and will do whatever is required. While it isn’t Macduff who prods Malcolm into action—Duncan’s son is fully prepared to battle Macbeth—I still think of Democratic voters prodding their elected representatives to take stronger action against Trump. It’s certainly easier for Malcolm to act once he knows he has a fully committed Macduff fighting for him.
In the final confrontation, Macbeth taunts his enemy with a Renaissance version of “bring it on”—“Lay on, Macduff; and damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’”—and to his sorrow Malcolm does. After months of DJT appearing indomitable, Birnam Wood is on the move and it’s no time to cry, “Hold, enough!”
